West Side News & Notes
By Stephanie Kist
Roddy pleads guilty in
Goodhue murder case
DOWNTOWN AKRON — Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh announced March 27 that Kevin Roddy, 22, of Beechwood Drive in West Akron, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and a gun specification, for causing the death of Jason Reaven, 22, of Goodhue Drive in West Akron.
Roddy will be sentenced April 9 by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Jane Bond.
Roddy was one of four individuals
involved in the June 22, 2006, robbery and death of
University of Akron student Reaven.
Jason Jones, 23, of Artman Drive
in West Akron, pleaded guilty Feb. 26 to aggravated
murder with a gun specification, kidnapping and aggravated
robbery. He was sentenced by Bond to life with 20 years,
plus three years for the gun specification, for a total
of 23 years before he is eligible for parole.
Megan Brown, of Bissell Drive
in Twinsburg, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated
robbery Jan. 31. She is set for sentencing April 9 in
Bond’s courtroom and could receive three to 10
years in prison.
One individual remains set for
trial. Michael Mullen, 27, of Peckham Street in West
Akron, is scheduled for trial April 3.
Akron Holocaust
Commemoration events planned
AKRON — For the 20th year,
the city of Akron will sponsor a Holocaust Commemoration.
This year, the event will be April 17 at noon in the
auditorium at the Akron-Summit County Main Branch Library,
60 S. High St.
An awards ceremony will take
place at 11:30 a.m. to present certificates and plaques
to the middle school and high school students selected
as winners of the 2007 City of Akron Holocaust Arts
and Writing Contest. This year’s theme for the
contest has been “Holocaust Rescuers — A
Model for the Present.”
The first-place winners in the
various categories also will have the opportunity to
visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., along
with their teachers, in May.
A candle-lighting ceremony will
be featured during the commemoration ceremony at noon.
The featured speaker for this part of the program will
be Carol Danks; her topic will be “Holocaust Rescuers:
Points of Light in the Darkness.”
Danks, a former educator, is
a member of the Regional Education Corps of the U.S.
Holocaust Museum and has lectured on the Holocaust throughout
the United States.
On April 5 at 6:30 p.m., an art
reception, open to the community, will take place in
honor of the contest winners. This program also will
take place at the Main Library. There is no charge for
either event.
On April 15, the Manchester Dance
program will provide a creative presentation titled
“Terezin” for the Yom Hashoah, Holocaust
Remembrance Day, program at 7 p.m. at the Shaw Jewish
Community Center, 750 White Pond Drive.
The town of Terezin is near Prague,
Czech Republic. In 1941,
the population of 4,000 was ejected and the town turned
into a Jewish ghetto and used as a transit camp for
Jews whose final destination was Auschwitz, according
to Holocaust Commemoration Committee Chairwoman Sue
Spector.
For more information, call Spector
at (330) 864-1736 or visit the city of Akron Holocaust
Web site at ci.akron.oh .us/Holocaust.
Holocaust education seminar
features area experts
WEST AKRON — Teachers,
university students and other community members are
invited to participate in “To Do the Right Thing:
The Holocaust and Beyond,” a seminar April 16,
from 4 to 8 p.m., at the Shaw Jewish Community Center,
750 White Pond Drive.
The seminar features the keynote
address “Holocaust Rescuers: The Complexity of
Moral Actions,” which Carol Danks will deliver.
Danks, a founder and member of
the Ohio Council on Holocaust Education, is co-editor
of “The Holocaust: Prejudice Unleashed,”
written for the Ohio Department of Education, “Teaching
for a Tolerant World, Grades 9-12” and author
of numerous articles.
During the seminar, Richard Steigmann-Gall
will moderate “Do Not Stand Idly By: A Panel About
Hatred and Tolerance.” Steigmann-Gall, associate
professor of history and director of the Jewish Studies
Department at Kent State University (KSU), wrote “The
Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945,”
which has been translated into four languages.
Panel members to date include
Deborah Barnbaum, associate professor of philosophy
at KSU, and Benjamin Rancman, assistant regional director
of the Anti-Defamation League, Ohio/Kentucky/Alle-gheny
Region.
Everyone attending may participate
in group discussions on “Challenges for the Future
— Where Do We Go From Here?,” in which teachers
and others can work on strategies to combat hatred and
work to achieve a more tolerant society.
This discussion also will help
teachers prepare for the 2008 City of Akron Holocaust
Arts & Writing Contest.
Esther Cohen Hexter, a Holocaust
educator and co-chair of the seminar, will start the
event with a historical overview. Co-chair Barbara White
is an expert in Holocaust resources, according to organizers,
and branch manager of the West Hill Branch Library.
She will present the topic “Recent Text and Media
Sources.”
Preregistration is required
by April 11. There is no charge for the seminar, but
dinner costs $12. Make checks payable to Jewish Community
Board of Akron (JCBA) and send to: JCBA, Attention:
Holocaust Seminar, 750 White Pond Dr., Akron, OH 44320.
For details, contact Ruthellen
Fein at (330) 835-0072 or Rfein@jewishakron.org.
Volunteers take action for
cleaner community
AKRON — Keep Akron Beautiful
(KAB) is working to recruit volunteers to adopt a public
parcel of land to clean during the 26th Clean Up Akron
Week, April 21-28. KAB will join 2.5 million volunteers
in more than 15,000 communities.
Last year in Akron, 1,780 people
registered to clean 104 sites of 12 tons of litter.
Thirty-one schools assigned 3,447 students to clean
up their campuses. Corporate volunteers from Bridgestone
Firestone planned two cleanups during the week. During
one, 41 employees walked the route and collected more
than half a ton of litter, a couch, a TV and 16 tires.
During the other, nine volunteers from Bridgestone cleared
43 tires for recycling, scrap metal and a pile of junk
weighing a half a ton from a vacant lot.
Churches, neighborhood block-watch
groups and volunteer organizations are encouraged to
tackle eyesores in their own back yards to restore a
sense of pride and ownership in their local environments,
according to KAB.
For this one week, KAB will provide
all cleanup supplies for free and arrange for free disposal.
Call (330) 375-2116 for a registration form, or register
online at www.keepakronbeau
tiful.org.
KAB relies on national sponsors
Pepsi, Wrigley, Honda, Glad, Waste Management, Sprint,
Scotts Miracle-Gro, Sparkle, Firestone, Sam’s
Club and Troy-Bilt for the supplies and media support
necessary for orchestrating this environmental public
awareness campaign.
Rally will address global
warming
DOWNTOWN AKRON — On April
14 from noon to 2 p.m. in front of the Federal Building
on the corner of Market and Main streets, Summit County
citizens will join citizens in communities across the
country to participate in a rally on global warming.
The Akron rally is one of 710
rallies taking place across the country by Step It Up
2007, a national grassroots initiative seeking legislative
action to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.
The Summit County Step It Up
2007 rally is being organized
by volunteer citizens in an effort to draw local attention
to the environmental threats posed by global warming,
raise awareness about ways in which global warming can
be diminished or halted and engage citizens to influence
the enactment of legislation that reduces carbon emissions
by businesses.
The rally will feature business,
community and government leaders who will address current
and future efforts to stop global warming, according
to organizers.
There will be a specific focus
on ways in which citizens can play a role to address
this issue.
The rally is free and open to
the public, and people of all ages are invited to attend.
|
